 |
|
|
Rs 1,72,000 cr to be spent on National Highways
Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr K.H. Muniyappa (second from right), inspects the model of a flyover near Phagwara on Thursday.
— Tribune photo by Pawan Sharma
6000 types of question papers in PTU
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
6-month-old raped, accused held
NRI Sabha poll at Yaadgaar Hall
Teachers’ union begins ‘Protest Week’
|
|
Rs 1,72,000 cr to be spent on National Highways
Phagwara, January 19 Later addressing a function, the minister declared that the Centre had approved a comprehensive programme of Rs 1,72,000 crore for the development of National Highways within next seven years. The ambitious programme includes four to six-laning of 10,000 km of the National Highways on BOT basis, widening of two lanes with paved shoulders of the existing 20,000 km of the National Highways, and the development of 10,000 km of expressways, he said. The UPA government, Mr Muniyappa added, had formulated a special programme for the accelerated development of the roads in the North-Eastern region. He said that the work on the four-laning of the Jalandhar-Pathankot-Jammu and the Srinagar Road would start soon to cover the North-South corridor connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari, passing through Punjab, and the four-laning of the 104-km-long Bhogpur-Pathankot Road would be completed by June 2008. The minister claimed that 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the total consumption of fuel could be saved by strengthening and widening the road network. He also claimed that the new programme would give employment to 42 persons per km per day during the construction process. Mr Muniyappa said the 254-km-long National Highways in Punjab would be upgraded on a BOT basis. He added that the four-laning of roads on the Jalandhar-Amritsar and the Ambala—Chandigarh sections had been decided. Present on the occasion were the who’s who of the local politics, including Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, local MLA, Mr Joginder Singh Mann, state PWD Minister, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, Akali MPs, Ms Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Chairman of the Phagwara Improvement Trust, Mr Balbir Raja Sodhi, Mayor of Jalandhar, Mr Surinder Mahey, and President of the Phagwara Nagar Council, Mr Malkiat Singh Ragbotra, besides some Akali councillors, including Ms Sarabjit Kaur, BJP councillors, Mr Arun Khosla, Bira Ram Baljot, and Congress councillors, Ms Sita Devi, Mr Brij Bhushan Parbhakar and Mr Jyoti Ghai. All were seen sitting together in one hall, engrossed in the function. The Union Minister also praised Punjabis for their courageous stand during the war with China and Pakistan in 1962, 1965, 1971 and then during the days of militancy. A member of the National Highways Authority, Mr Nirmaljit Singh, and its AGM, Mr AK Bajaj, also addressed the gathering. |
|
6000 types of question papers in PTU
Jalandhar, January 19 If that is the tally of the question papers that the university authorities are supposed to set and get composed, proof-read, dispatched to the press, printed, packed, re-sent to the university, categorised college-wise and sent to 142 colleges, chances of blunders such as paper leak, out-of-syllabus question paper, mistakes in question paper or dispatch of ‘wrong’ question paper to a college are certainly not surprising. Even as tomorrow the current batches of the students would be appearing for the last examination, the university would have ‘taken’ examinations by using 4000 types of question papers in this semester. Later, the examination of students from batches 2000 and 2001 would be conducted. A simple calculation based on the type of question papers set for B.Tech course reveals that at least 400 types of papers have to be set for the current students. The eight-semester course has ten different types of engineering streams. A student of one semester has at least five subjects to clear each semester, taking the tally to an average of 400 papers. Each batch of each stream has some students who have to clear the courses of previous batch, so both odd and even semester papers have to be printed even as admission is held just once a year. Besides this, each batch of a stream also has some students availing of their third or fifth chance, which means a paper from the syllabus of the previous years, too, has to be set up. Many courses like MBA International, and the courses that were started just for one semester for a limited batch of 20 students are still being run. Dr Siby John, Dean (Examination), when contacted, confirmed the problem, but he said there was no solution to it. He said that even as he had decided to give the system a ‘break’ by deciding not to change the syllabus for a year during his tenure as Dean (Academics) last year, the process had still been very tedious. He admitted that there had been some problems associated with the conduct of examination in one set of the paper or the other every year. However, he added that he was working hard to get the system in place.
There were reports that “Engineering Drawing” paper of B.Tech (first semester) mechanical engineering course that was held on January 16 had been leaked. The university VC, Dr S.K. Salwan, said that he, too, had got a fax from a Mohali college half an hour before the paper was scheduled to be held. A probe into this had already been ordered, he said. The students of B.Tech (electrical and electronics engineering) third semester Lovely Institute of Technology (LIT) had got a ‘wrong’ question paper on January 11. The question paper they had got was actually meant for the students of B.Tech (electronics and communication engineering). Students from other colleges, however, had attempted the ‘correct’ paper. The students of the LIT have since then been demanding that they be given grace marks for questions with a weightage of 40 marks that were out of syllabus. The VC said the centre superintendent had made a mistake by distributing the same question paper to students of two streams. |
|
6-month-old raped, accused held
Dhilwan (Kapurthala), January 19 The victim’s parents had gone to a gurdwara after leaving the child with their neighbour, Karam Chand, the police said. Karam Chand then consumed liquor and allegedly raped the child, the police officials added. The wife of the accused was away from the village at the time of the incident, they said. After the parents of the victim returned to pick her up, they found her crying. As the mother took the child into her lap, she found her bleeding profusely, the police added. When the child’s parents raised an alarm, villagers assembled on the spot and started beating Karam Chand. The accused had to be rescued from the villagers by the police. The child was admitted to the local Civil Hospital. Her condition was stated to be stable. The police has registered a case under Section 376 of the IPC against the accused. The latest incident comes a few weeks after two local police constables were arrested for allegedly being part of a gang rape in Kapurthala. The victim was a resident of Hoshiarpur. |
|
De-addiction centre set up in Central Jail
Amritsar, January 19 The newly-appointed SSP Jails Kunwar Vijay Partap, who has taken a number of steps to improve the working of the administration, while talking to The Tribune said this was an attempt to turn the prison into a “Sudhar Ghar” (house of reforms for prisoners). The de-addiction centre would have specialist doctors from government hospitals and charity organisations that are interested in devoting their time to the welfare of jail inmates and drug addicts. The centre has been started after renovating a barrack for the purpose. Community participation of NGOs like the Civil Defence, Amritsar, and the Rotary Club, Amritsar, has also played an important part. There are more than 350 prisoners in the jail accused of drug peddling and they have been arrested under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. According to Kunwar Vijay Partap, most of the accused were also drug addicts. He said there was a strict surveillance, besides occasional search operations, to check the illegal supply and consumption of drugs inside the jail. He said recently five cases had been registered against some inmates and visitors in that regard. The “connivance” of jail wardens and other officials in this illegal trade had also come under a scanner. Meanwhile, for the betterment of jail inmates, many other steps have also been taken. The prisoners have been provided with sports kits. The Art of Living courses would be organised from time to time. The SSP said doctors would visit the de-addiction centre at least twice daily. |
|
NRI Sabha poll at Yaadgaar Hall
Jalandhar, January 19 The Executive Director said the members or their nominees were being invited to elect the Central Sabha’s president as per Clause (iii) of Section 8 of the sabha’s constitution. He said that only NRI members were eligible to contest in the elections. “If an NRI member casts the vote himself, the nominee member shall not cast his vote,” he added. |
|
Teachers’ union begins ‘Protest Week’
Phagwara, January 19 The “Protest Week” would continue till January 24. This would be followed by a statewide mass casual leave and “cease work protest action” on January
31. — OC |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In a rare show of forced unanimity, Akalis, BJP and Congress leaders were seen sitting together in a function organised by the National Highways Authorities after Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr K.H. Muniyappa, laid the foundation stone of a Rs 19 crore flyover near the Mehtan-Mehli-Chandigarh bypass near Mehtan village on the GT Road here this afternoon.
